Hello,
I’ve been very brave this week creating that video up there. When I first launched my podcast, I never wanted to share the audio because I was so nervous, you can hear my voice shaking in the early episodes. But sometimes you have to suck it up and get on with it.
In our digital world and digital businesses, we need to be seen. I remember when every Zoom call started with “are you video or not video?”. Four years later and I don’t even question it. It’s video.
If you like getting a pre-email video message, let me know. If you don’t watch videos on emails (I can’t say I’ve ever done this), then all I’m chatting about is that I’ve got a new mentoring programme out. It’s part content, part SEO, part training you to create better copy, but all underpinned with driving new leads and new customers. You know, making content do the thing it's supposed to do.
Book a Virtual Brew for a chat about it and to find out more before it officially goes on sale in a couple of weeks.
I think a lot about customer journeys. Every time I buy something, I consider what brought me to this point of parting with my cash. It helps when it comes to analysing customer journeys for my clients.
I realise this is at risk of sounding a bit dull but stick with me because it’s a big important part of content marketing.
You see, when we create content, a lot of the time it’s for people who are at the very start of their experience with us. This content needs to work super hard so that we don’t lose this person to another business.
And there are a lot of elements to consider when understanding if the content we’ve spent hours creating is actually helping move these folks forwards.
What’s more, is that some customers might take very different journeys. And some will be shorter than others. We need to understand all of this so we can create the right content for the right people to get them moving towards that sale.
When I create a content strategy, I use the customer journey as the backbone. How are they currently moving towards a sale? Where are they falling off? How can we make this easier and better for them?
Before digging into this a little more, there are a couple of stories I want to share with you that illustrate how different content can help move you in different ways.
The Fancy Shave
A couple of years ago (okay in lockdown), I was pootling about on the internet looking for ways I could make my bathroom supplies more vegan and sustainable. I am too scared to use one of those proper razors - you know the ones where you have to unscrew the blades and take out the proper looking razor blades - so I wanted something that wasn’t electric but was good for the planet.
I didn’t see anything that I wanted to buy and thought nothing of it. Until I went on Facebook the next day. There popped up an advert for a vegan razor. Not a brand I’d seen before but boy, did that razor look all pretty.
Off I popped to the website. Ooo a subscription. I never need to go to the shop for new heads, they come right to my door. Everything about this razor seemed right to me. So I bought it.
Five minutes after seeing the advert, I’d spent more on a razor than I ever had before. And here’s why…
Like many people, when I stop to deliberate it takes me far longer to buy. In fact, our willingness to make an impulse purchase is decided for us by our parents’ behaviour. If you grew up in a home where spending money happens, then you’re more likely to spend in the same way. Using impulse rather than thinking on it for a night.
I grew up in a home where we were told such things as “it’s only a bargain if you need it”, and “never a lender nor borrower be.” While my frugal behaviour now is more driven by trying to live sustainably, there are times when I will make an impulse buy.
Our impulse buys are driven by our emotions. We part with our cash before the slower side of the brain can kick in. This is the side of the brain that asks questions like: do I really need this? Are their claims correct?
Marketing peeps know all about this. They want you to buy before you’ve engaged that critical thinking side. They want to get you when your emotion-led brain, the quick-thinking decision-maker is still in control. I’m paraphrasing this a bit but Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow is a brilliant read on this subject.
For you, as a business, this is important. Your content needs to appeal to that emotional side of the brain. You need your copy, your website and your images to appeal directly to your future customer so they see it and buy it. You do need to answer that rational side of the brain as well. Those questions that bring doubt into the minds of your customer. But ideally, you’ll be getting them with your amazing content and products before that kicks in.
But make sure you deliver as well.
My razor story didn’t nearly have a happy ending. After my impulse buy, the product took ages to arrive. Okay, it was lockdown and everyone was ordering everything. But taking that into account, it was months of waiting. Months.
In that time, I started to read reviews. See complaints and I found their competitor. Another vegan razor that was slightly more sustainable. I very nearly asked for a refund.
You see they’d nailed the first bit - putting content in front of my face that was definitely right for me. Yet they were failing on the most important part.
It’s not enough to nail the sale because the customer journey doesn’t stop there. It’s not my one razor sale that matters but my remaining on a subscription basis for a long period of time. My lifetime value is greater than one purchase.
The company did correct their mistake. I recognised it was probably startup teething problems. And since then, my blades arrive on time as expected.
It can be so easy to concentrate on our brand new customers and bringing them in when in fact, our best sales usually come from our existing customers. Nurturing people past the point of sale can have bigger benefits than simply getting the sale in the first place.
And here’s another reason to look at this area - these sales will be easier.
Service businesses
Do you have sales targets? It all sounds very cheesy salesman. Or working in a call centre. But having a sales target can simply mean making enough money to pay the bills that month. That doesn’t sound too second-hand car selling, does it?
The reason I want you to think about sales targets is so that you get in a habit of thinking about how you get there.
Content -> Customer -> Sales -> Repeat sales
For example, if I know I need to invoice a certain amount of money and I’m likely to miss it, I have a list of leads who I’ve been chatting to about work. I also have a list of past clients. When I check in with them to see how they’re getting on and what can I help with - I often get something like this in return:
“So glad you’ve emailed. I actually need your help with this blog.”
And so the sales I need to make materialise. Because I’ve already put in the hard work building the relationships, nurturing and creating this side of the customer journey so that when I send a check-in email - they don’t feel like I’m asking anything of them.
In fact, I do this on a regular basis because it’s a nice thing to do. By not always looking for the sale, I’m building up a genuine relationship. This is a hugely important part of being a service business. But it’s also one that you can replicate at scale in all businesses.
Hidden content
This is why I keep harping on about hidden content. Those out of offices, thank you pages, the little messages and emails that you send out are some of your most important pieces of content. And yet, we overlook them in favour of social media posts all the time.
If we spent more time crafting a customer journey that really did think through every possible step they take, then we might have a fair few more customers.
What makes this kind of content so special is that it’s not necessarily gated but it does build trust much quicker. It brings you closer to that person lurking on your website, reading your emails and clicking on them.
Let’s not automate everything
I was chatting to a friend/client last week about her email marketing. I’m a bit nosey and asked if she’d done a particular course as I could see some of it in her emails. She had and corrected my assumption that her daily emails are part of an automation.
Usually, I’d suggest automating some or all of them but she hated that idea. For her, sitting and writing an email each day is part of her routine. When she was ill, she simply told her list this and that the emails would resume when she was better. “It’s more authentic that way,” she said.
Plus, she enjoyed the daily process. She sees it as exercising her writing as she gets to do it every day. And then she told me that she doesn’t see these daily emails as only emails but as a conversation with the people on her list. And her readers reply to her every single day.
She doesn’t ask people to reply but they do anyway. Around 10-20% of her email list reply to her emails. I know some big marketers who would love that kind of response rate. And my friend here has made it look effortless.
The reason this happens is that:
a. She understands the people on her list. It’s not a list of freebie hunters but a list of fans
b. She’s not ‘marketing’ to them but building a relationship
c. It’s a conversation.
What can happen with crafting customer journeys is that we tell them where we want them to go. We broadcast at them over social media. Finally, they go see our website and we broadcast to them that they must get our newsletters. And then they get our emails and, we broadcast again about how they must buy our stuff.
Instead, if we get to know them at every step of the journey, we don’t have to tell them what to do, they will tell you what they want.
Emails are important for this
Now, emails are a great starting place for you to look at this journey. Your emails will tell you who is interested in what you’re doing and what kinds of things they are looking at. You just need to know what you’re looking for on your email software.
It also brings me to another point about customer journeys. One of the things I see spouted about online (and goodness knows I love generic online advice) is that you need lots of people on your list to sell your products and services.
You will sell some things from a large list but actually, it’s better to have the right people on your list than lots of people. I’ve spoken before about this. We can often connect our emotions to our email lists and feel like it’s a personal attack when someone unsubscribes.
We are social beings so of course having a big list makes you feel safe. We crave this group behaviour. But behind the emotion is the practical side that having an email list costs you money. Even when that service seems free - like MailChimp.
Instead of creating your customer journey about shovelling as many people into your list as possible, focus on what you need the outcome to be. If you only need ten people a year, then having a carefully crafted list of 20 or 30 people may hit your sales target faster and easier than trying to build up thousands.
If you’re selling low-price products, then you need to be pulling people into that list and building them into your biggest fans. Especially if you’re a small business. Even then, you want the right people on your list, not everyone.
Two things you can do to help identify the customer journey.
There are two questions you can ask your current customers to help you figure this out:
How did they find you?
What made them want to buy from you?
The first question is one you’ll be used to answering. Loads of businesses ask how you found them. And then there’ll be a checklist of social media, adverts, word of mouth, Google and all that jazz. Only the truth is that it’s never just one of those things. Sometimes I’ll want to say that yes, it was word of mouth but then I went and look at your website, and reviews, and stalked you on LinkedIn for a bit.
If you want to know the true answer - ask them in a way that lets them explain rather than only tick a box. Of course, if you have thousands of customers, this gets quite tricky but giving people an option to expand their answer will give you greater insights.
That second question, however, is one I rarely see being asked. I always want to know why someone has bought from me. Sometimes, I’ll ask outright but other times I’ll eek it out of a client over a series of conversations. Then I know if the answer comes up time and again. This helps me understand if my branding and positioning work and how I can build this into more content.
Finding you and buying from you are two different things so make sure you’re asking both.
With this in mind, I’m planning my next group of Thursday Brews and I’d genuinely love to know what you’d like to read.
Click on one of the below to vote:
Tech that actually helps with writing and content creation
How to develop ideas into coherent stories that sell
How to build longer in-depth reads
If there is something else, reply and let me know (see I’m giving you the opportunity to expand).
Right, I’m off to go enjoy the sunshine.
See you next Thursday!
Fiona
Let's go on a journey... a customer journey